Koiko endorsed the film denying the Rape of Nanking of 1937, and supported the revision of Article 9 of the Post-War Pacifist Constitution of Japan to allow it to re-militarize, and yet, publicizes herself as a Centrist. If she is a centrist, then Abe has got to be the Far Left, which in Japan has almost vanished to a mere 7% of the electorate. So, if this is a "democracy", the loser in the election has got to be the Japanese people, being presented with two choices - going to war under Abe, or going to war under Koiko. And for its neighbors, the return of the Japanese empire is written on the wall for all to read. This of course will harden the stance of NK. As for China, what its people feels seems not to make any difference on the world stage. And the Japanese Right knows that. Soft clay simply invites a bigger plow.

Koike is to the FAR RIGHT of Abe, if that is possible. Well, it will be possible once she is elected and revises Article 9 of the Japanese constitution and officially reclaim Korea as a part of Japan in accordance with the Treaty of Annexation of Korea of 1910. And thence, another Mukden Incident, the 90th anniversary of which is just 4 years down the road.

The Japanese cannot be blamed for supporting the right-wing group such as Abe and Koike. They have been made to see it as the only way for Japan to survive, not just by the right-wing group but also by North Korea. Another thing is that the more liberal opposition parties are not strong enough for the Japanese to put their trust in. If there is a strong liberal party to oppose Abe or Koike, the Japanese would have a choice. Right now, it seems there is none. We all have to live with the fact that Abe will have his way again.

The so-called democratic elections of Japan are a sham. Here's why. The right wing radicals infiltrated and took over the previously dovish Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), headed from August 2011 to December 2012 by Yushihiko Noda, which under the pretext of not wanting to offend China, nationalized the Diaoyudao islands, which was akin to knocking someone off his feet in order to avoid stepping on his toes. Then, it lost the general election to the LDP, under Shinzo Abe, who in continuity with the hatchet job done by Noda, clung on to Diaoyudao with every claw he has, to this day. As the centrists tried to regroup by merging into the Democratic Party (DP) on March 27, 2016, which was committed to preserving the Pacifist Constitution and opposing the profligate printing of money that was Abenomics, it was re-eviscerated by the splintering of the faction led by right-wing Yuriko Koike (Party of Hope), leaving behind a barely existing Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) led by Yukio Edano, as of October 2, 2017. The reason there is no opposition party of any consequence in Japan is not because there is no opposition of the the people of Japan to the militarist policies of Abe and the LDP (joined by the Komeito and Party of Hope), but because the opposition parties have been consistently infiltrated and sabotaged with defections of votes and defections of candidates who to begin with, really oppose its support for the Pacifist Constitution and its rejection of re-militarization of Japan.

For more than 5 years now, Japan has no organized and effective opposition to the Abe clique. Without a viable opposition, how can Japan's elections be considered truly democratic? A senior member of Abe's cabinet said it all, when he accidentally opined that Japan should follow the example of the Nazi Party, how it seized power through "democratic means" only to abolish it all the more completely later on.